Election Time

With the local elections right around the corner the news station is highly focused on the whereabouts and appearances of the local political figures. On one hand  politics may sound like a tedious and dull area of news to cover. However, while the answers to every question were the general political spiel the process of researching to interviewing was much different than normal.
    Because politicians, especially the week before elections, are very busy one major things that was different than a normal day was that we had to work more to their schedule than to ours. Working to their schedule meant either waiting around for them, or moving fast to get a quick interview before they left the building. I found, this week, that the most conventional way to approach interviews with politicians is to keep it generic (especially if it is around elections time). Which means asking about the campaign, what they are out promoting (in the case I covered early elections), their thought on a major issue, etc.
      Anyway, this week among all the politics I learned how to work a camera that was new to me. The reporter I was with also showed me some interesting techniques that I had never been shown, or thought about doing. I did another stand up which is my best one to date (as voted on by myself and the reporter I was with); however, the other highlight of the day was that I interviewed a congressman, by myself ! In the past reporters have had me only ask a few questions for each person, however, this time I did the entire interview alone. The sense of accomplishment I had after doing it alone, as well as the compliments from the reporter I was with, absolutely made my day. For this particular package, as far as editing it concerned, I put together most if the video clips for the VO (the reporter had to do a little tweaking since I haven't really done that before). Later in the week I covered a luncheon where candidates spoke. Because of the chaos with the other reporters from other stations being there I played helper for the most part. I took notes and handled the equipment while on sight.
       Overall, it was a very interesting week coving the politics. Politics and elections are covered a little differently than other stories, which make them interesting at times. I definitely think that I would enjoy doing a short stint of work in DC where I covered politics primarily in my career.